Trump v Biden debate: calmer, better balanced and a modest win for the challenger
The Donald Trump that appeared in the second presidential debate last night was, by his standards, remarkably restrained – clearly he had got the message voters did not like his previous ultra-aggressive style. No longer facing constant interruptions Joe Biden was also smoother than before. This, plus detailed policy focused questions by the moderator Kirsten Welker, gave us something desperately lacking from the first debate – genuine substance.
The first topic was, inevitably, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic with debate centring on the issue of re-opening America. Trump’s attempts to build a contrast between himself and Biden – based around his desire to reopen in the name of saving the economy and Biden’s willingness to accept lockdowns – was side-stepped fairly effectively by his opponent. Yes, Biden admitted he would support lockdowns when necessary but he also wanted to get businesses the funds to reopen safely – something he argued Republicans were blocking.
More fundamentally, with 220,000 Americans dead and the economy now in tatters this was hardly terrain that favoured Trump. Attempts to claim success, or that things would have been worse under Biden sounded somewhat threadbare. When he then claimed a vaccine would arrive soon it was easy for Biden to skewer Trump on his record of wildly over-optimistic predictions about the pandemic. Meanwhile, his response to Trump’s claim that people were learning to live with the virus – “Learning to live with it? Come on. People are dying with it, Mr. President.” – was the best zinger of the night.
Indeed, as in the last debate Biden’s strongest points were to do with healthcare. On the former he reiterated his commitment to building on Obamacare with a public option, floating the term Bidencare. Trump’s claims that he had a better alternative and that Biden planned to abolish private insurance were old hat and dealt with fairly summarily. Biden bluntly denied the latter, pointing out he fought against this in the primary, and pointed Trump had yet to release a plan for the former.
On other topics the balance was more even. Talking about the economy and the environment Trump made promises to restore the pre-pandemic highs, never mind the current crash. Biden also made a positive case but seemed to walk into a few traps. When Biden responded to a question of whether he would close down the oil industry – a key American sector – with “Yes, I would transition away from it” it was a gift to his opponent.
“Wow. That’s a big statement… Do you hear that Texas? Do you hear that Pennsylvania?” Trump crowed. True, Biden’s policies has long made very clear his desire to rush to renewables. But hearing what amounted to a promise to end oil so bluntly put was certainly a moment, and may be risky.
On other topics, oddly enough immigration and race, Trump’s attacks managed to sting Biden. On these issues Biden displayed real passion. He accused Trump of stoking racial divisions. When discussing the 525 children whose parents can still not be found years after they were separated from them at the border Biden, rightly, showed real anger.
While Trump had little in the way of defence buthe did have a line of attack. Why had Biden not dealt with these issues while in power? Why had he supported mass deportation of illegal immigrants under Obama and the 1994 crime bill that led to mass incarceration?
Faced with this Biden admitted he had been wrong and touted his plans for reform in these areas – another push to offer illegal migrants citizenship and sending drug addicts into treatment instead of jail. This was probably the best course he had available, but whether voters see him as pragmatic or hypocritical and whether the liked his proposals remains to be seen.
Still, it was telling that Trump was best on the attack and even on his best behaviour Trump will be Trump. A rant against wind power – an old hang up of his – was his most undisciplined moment. Civility waned in an earlier part of the debate, when in a period supposedly devoted to the issue of election security, Trump made a concerted attempt early to slime Biden with charges of corruption bringing up the activities of his son, Hunter Biden.
Trump had attempted to do this in the last debate but it got lost in a general stream of nastiness. This time Trump’s greater restraint, and the ginning up of new charges based around the mysterious laptop supposedly owned by Hunter Biden that has recently surfaced, made the attack seem more effective.
Hunter Biden’s wastrel-like tendencies are an awkward matter, but Biden pushed back vigorously. He denied any impropriety, noted that multiple witnesses had attested to the propriety of his actions in Ukraine, accused Trump of promoting Russian disinformation, and took aim at Trump’s shady dealings and unreleased tax returns.
Indeed, on the whole voters seemed to think Biden did better. Snap polls by CNN and Data for Progress on who won the debate found voters favour Biden over Trump 53% to 39% and 53% to 42% respectively. Still, it seems no coincidence that these numbers seem to almost perfectly match Trump’s approval vs disapproval ratings. Most voters seem to have already made up their minds about who they prefer and for Biden, who according to the polls is firmly in the lead, that’s a better place to be.